30 Years’ War Spanish – 600 Point Armies for Field of Glory Renaissance

I’ve got most of the figures necessary for a Spanish army for the 30 Years War and 80 Years War in Field of Glory Renaissance. The Spanish of this period are represented by two army lists in the army list book Wars of Religion: Western Europe 1610-1660: Later Imperial Spanish (1621-59) and Thirty Years’ War Peninsular Spanish (1635-59). Both, of course, have a starter army. The armies are fairly similar but they’re not what I’m looking for. I want an army for the Battle of Rocroi (1643).

600 Point Starter Armies

Here’s a summary of the Spanish starter armies I’m going to cover. The official starter army for Later Imperial Spanish (1621-59) is given in the table as “Army of Alsace 1632-34” – I explain why later.

Type	Army of Alsace 1632-34	Peninsular Spanish 1635-59	Army of Flanders 1635-59 Option 1	Army of Flanders 1635-59 Option 2
Commander-in-Chief	1	1	1	1
Sub-commander	2	2	2	2
Lancers		1
Cuirassier	1		1	2
Armoured Carabineer	1	1	1	1
Caballos Corazas	2	2	2
Later Tercio	3
Armoured Pike and Shot		3	3	4
Unarmoured Pike and Shot		1	1	1
Miquelets		1
Dragoons	1	1	1	1
Medium Guns	1	1	1	1
Camp	1	1	1	1

The numbers in the table are the number of stands for commanders and, for troops, the number of battle groups of that type. These are not complete army lists – for that you’ll have to buy the official books. There is, for example, no mention of morale in the table. That is because I’m only interested in how many units of each distinct type to get. Or put another way, I only need to know how they look.

Notes:

• A cuirassier is a pistoleer in 3/4 armour.
• An “Armoured” pistoleer or carabineer has back and breast plate.
• Later Tercio and Armoured Pike and Shot battle groups include armoured Pikemen.
• Miquelets are light foot so are two figures to a base; all other infantry are four to a base.

Nordlingen: Army of Alsace Starter Army (1632-34)

The Later Imperial Spanish starter army given in the army list book (Wars of Religion: Western Europe 1610-1660) is only legal in the period 1632-34. The two bits of evidence for this are:

• The starter army has no foreign regiments, compulsory from 1635.
• The starter army includes a dragoon battle group, permitted from 1632.

The starter army basically represents the Army of Alsace in 1633-34. They invaded the Lower Rhine and fought at the Battle of Nordlingen (1634) where, in a combined force with the Imperialists, they whupped the Swedes.

Rocroi: Army of Flanders from 1635

I want to put together a Spanish army for Rocroi (1643). The Later Imperial Spanish starter army in Wars of Religion: Western Europe 1610-1660 doesn’t fit the bill for the reasons outlined above.

One of the interesting things about the Later Imperial Spanish FOG list is that although there are lots of options with Later Tercio formation only one option, the Army of Flanders from 1635, replaces Later Tercio with the Pike and Shot formation used by other nations. It is this army that fought at Rocroi.

I’ve included a couple of 600 AP options for the Army of Flanders from 1635. The first is the Cavalry Option. It puts more points in the horse.

The second option more points into the infantry. It features five pike and shot units including an Elite and a Superior battle group. However the cavalry arm is quite weak with only three battle groups.